Student Survey 2018: Sneak Preview

Conducting the annual student survey is always an exciting time at Sqore. We love seeing new trends emerge, and discovering new things about our users and your future students. Last year we talked about how engagement is key to successfully marketing to students who are planning to study abroad. While that has not changed, we are still discovering new habits that inform us on how to better help connect students to the higher education programmes.

The responses for the 2018 survey are now in, and while the key findings are yet to be finalised, I’m really excited to share some of these fascinating data that we’ve discovered so far.

Search Engines First, Face to Face Later

It comes as no surprise that Google still reigns supreme as the first point of discovery for when students begin their research. From there, they’ll head on to university websites to gather more information.
However, it’s what follows that process that is interesting. Personal conversations are very effective in persuasion – 90% of respondents made it clear that speaking to a representative makes all the difference in choosing where to apply. Their preferred mode of communication? E-mail, phone and WhatsApp.
More than half of the respondents did not actually get to talk to a university representative during their research process. Of these, 3 out of 4 respondents said that they would have appreciated the opportunity to have spoken to someone from the university.
Of the smaller group who did manage to speak to a university representative – 85% said that it was the major factor that affected their decision to apply.

Time Spent on Research

One of the findings last year was that students start researching early. This is still the case, with students planning ahead up to a year before application. A majority of the students also spend more than 5 hours researching a school, or anywhere between 2-5 hours.

Why They Won’t Apply

Students are also becoming increasingly selective about where they choose to invest their time and money. They are more discerning about where and why they would apply to a school.
One of the biggest reasons they would actively not apply to a school would be because they only wanted to apply to schools that they were sure of. Secondly, some students did not want to pay the application fee. Otherwise, they found the application process too strenuous and time-consuming.

Download the Full Report

More interesting findings are coming your way! The full report will also cover the top incentives that encourage students to apply to a university, plus detailed data from students who applied to only one university or for more than one.

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How We Work With Your Campaign

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